International child abduction to and from Australia
Information about the Inquiry
On 11 May 2011 the Senate referred the following matter to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committees for inquiry and report.
The incidence of international child abduction to and from Australia, including:
(a) the costs, terms and conditions of legal and departmental assistance for parents
whose child has been abducted overseas;
(b) the effectiveness of the Hague Convention in returning children who were
wrongly removed or retained, to their country of habitual residence;
(c) the roles of various Commonwealth departments involved in returning children
who were wrongly removed or retained, to their country of habitual residence;
(d) policies, practices and strategies that could be introduced to streamline the
return of abducted children; and
(e) any other related matters.
Submissions should be received by 29 July 2011. The reporting date is 31 October 2011.
The Committee is seeking written submissions from interested individuals and organisations preferably in electronic form submitted online or sent by email to legcon.sen@aph.gov.au as an attached Adobe PDF or MS Word format document. The email must include full postal address and contact details.
Alternatively, written submissions may be sent to:
Committee Secretary
Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
Notes to help you prepare your submission are available from the website at https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm. Alternatively, the Committee Secretariat will be able to help you with your inquiries and can be contacted on telephone +61 2 6277 3560 or facsimile +61 2 6277 5794 or by email to legcon.sen@aph.gov.au.
Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to Parliament House TTY number 02 6277 7799. Adobe also provides tools at http://access.adobe.com/ for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. If you require any special arrangements to enable you to participate in the Committee's inquiry, please contact the Committee Secretariat.
Once the Committee accepts your submission, it becomes a confidential Committee document and is protected by Parliamentary Privilege. You must not release your submission without the Committee's permission. If you do, it will not be protected by Parliamentary Privilege. At some stage during the inquiry, the Committee normally makes submissions public and places them on its website. Please indicate if you want your submission to be kept confidential.
For further information, contact: Committee Secretary
Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia